Join me on my adventurers eating all of NYC's Food Trends

Trend: Morphing Sushi Shapes

I love sushi and would eat it multiple times a week if it wouldn’t complete break the bank trying to do so. Sushi rolls have evolved over the years and graduated from just eel and cucumber to Dragon Rolls with 6 other ingredients and sauces. And now not only can get these fancy rolls but they come in different and fun shapes! Parody to American favorites the burrito, burger, and donut now come in their sushi versions.

The Sushiritto was the start of this trend a couple years ago and so far it is the most versatile of the all the shapes. There are many restaurants in NYC where you can get your hands a sushiritto including the original restaurant, with the same namesake, from San Fransisco with their outposts in NYC now. One of my favorite places to go to is a small shop in Midtown East called The Rawl.

Sushirittos are very filling. The only way to describe the sensation of eating them is it feel like you are picking up a giant sushi roll in your hands and taking big bites out of it. So if you enjoy the normal burrito and you love sushi you have to give it a try!

The next shape I noticed was a secret menu item at Redeye Grill, the Sushi Burger. The buns are perfectly shaped sushi rice patties and the inside is where the sushi magic happens. The burgers can be made from any of the rolls on the menu but not all are served every night. Now they are limiting the offering to the one I tried, a combinations of tuna, seaweed, watermelon radish, and avocado.

I really liked the combination of toppings inside the sushi burger but after I got half way through eating it, the whole burger started to fall apart and I had to switch to a fork. Overall tastes great, but messy to eat.

The newest on the scene is the Sushi donut, another invention from the west coast that made its way over to NYC this spring. I LOVE donuts so I thought this was a such a cute idea, and I’m happy I finally got to try it. Currently served in a few spots across New York. I tried it at Pokee, a poke bowl restaurant near NYU. This isn’t a regular menu item but there is signage inside the store. This is by far the smallest of all of the shapes and took the longest to make surprisingly! The base of the donut is a bed of sushi rice in the shape of a donut, then they layer on the Tuna and Salmon sashimi, with cucumber, pickles, sesame seeds, and nori.

Eating the sushi donut is a challenge, while they make for great photos in the palm of your hand they are not very practical for eating. I had to start out with a fork because there was no way to eat it like a true ‘donut.’ Overall it has the right ingredients but the toppings to rice ratio is a little off on this one and it feels like you are eating a lot of rice.

I am always on the hunt for new sushi shapes, if there are any out there that I have missed let me know in the comments! Also check out my post on Trend: Unorthodox Taco Shells to see some sushi like tacos.